This is a pilot study in which the feasibility of evaluating gene expression of various cytokines in bone was assessed. We sent letters to 60 women who had completed an observational study to invite them to have 2 small needle iliac crest bone biopsies, 3 months apart. We obtained samples from 3 volunteers; 2 had 2 biopsies and one woman had one biopsy. Total RNA was successfully extracted and we were able to detect most local factors in bone-the exceptions were IL-6 and PGHS-2. Several more women (6) will be recruited to further study reproducibility of the methods without intervention.